Forum Held to Highlight Hong Kong as an Emerging Platform Tightening the Economic Link Between China and Africa
HONG KONG, July 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The UN Development Programme announced today the successful conclusion to the forum highlighting Hong Kong's role in Sino-African relations. Hong Kong is an emerging platform tightening the economic ties between China and Africa based on its long-standing traditional role as a business hub for international trade and investment, the United Nations representative said in Hong Kong today.
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"Hong Kong has traditionally looked towards developed countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe for its business partners. The United Nations is supporting an initiative that seeks to provide a new destination that offers significant potential for Hong Kong's business community: Africa," said Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator and UN Development Programme Resident Representative in China.
Malik made the remarks during a forum held today in Hong Kong aimed at accelerating the involvement and contribution of the Hong Kong business community in Sino-African cooperation, organized by the China-Africa Business Council (CABC) and supported by UNDP.
Malik stressed that for private sector companies to go out and embark on a new adventure, especially on a continent that is little known to the majority of Chinese enterprises and more often highlighted for its civil wars and natural and human-made crises with its business opportunities, better information, incentives and a conducive environment are needed for business partnerships to appear.
"The UN assists the CABC in establishing various tools and mechanisms to provide support to China's business sector as it looks to engage with Africa," he said.
In an attempt to increase the number of Chinese private sector companies investing in Africa, CABC has adopted a proactive strategy of opening branches at the provincial level.
"Hong Kong became an obvious candidate for such a sub-national chapter of CABC given its traditional and key economic role in terms of international trade and investment, " Malik added.
The CABC established a Hong Kong chapter with the secretariat office located at the HKBU School of Business earlier this year, to serve as a bridge to strengthen the economic link between China and Africa by providing information and resources on Africa as the new business destination and organizing business delegations to visit prospective African countries.
The CABC, established in 2005, has strived to provide a mechanism to better facilitate economic links between China and Africa. It is a joint initiative between UNDP, the Ministry of Commerce and the China Society of Promotion for the Guangcai Programme (Guangcai)--a key link between China's Communist Party and the private sector with a membership of more than 16,500 Chinese private companies.
UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men to build better lives in China. As the UN's development network, UNDP draws on a world of experience to assist China in developing its own solutions to the country's development challenges. Through partnerships and innovation, UNDP works to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and an equitable Xiao Kang society by reducing poverty, strengthening the rule of law, promoting environmental sustainability, and fighting HIV/AIDS.
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